After leaving last year’s Thai MotoGP with a perfect double victory for Marc Marquez, Ducati’s 2026 season began in a far more complicated fashion.

On the back foot after sickness and three crashes in the pre-season test, Marc Marquez regrouped to fight Marco Bezzecchi for pole position in qualifying, missing out by just 0.035s to the Aprilia rider.

But when Bezzecchi fell from an early lead in the Sprint, Marquez looked set for a comfortable victory.

However, Pedro Acosta had other ideas, battling Marquez until a firm pass by the reigning champion on the penultimate lap sent the KTM rider wide.

The FIM Stewards announced a ‘drop one place’ penalty for Marquez, with around 30-seconds of the final lap remaining.

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A re-run of the previous Turn 12 showdown looked likely, but Marquez said he didn’t see the penalty message until the final corner, where he pulled over and allowed a surprised Acosta to take the win.

Sunday brought a different kind of drama, with Marquez suffering a wheel rim failure while chasing down Raul Fernandez for the final place on the podium.

The incident also meant Ducati’s run of 88 consecutive premier-class grands prix podiums was over.

“We must close the gap quickly… without causing panic”

In his post-race review on LinkedIn, Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall’Igna congratulated their rivals, while pledging to close the gap “quickly… without causing ourselves any panic”.

“This world championship is shaping up to be both demanding and exhilarating, with expectations already high as we look forward to the upcoming challenges.

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“First and foremost, congratulations to our opponents that have asserted themselves with full merit.

“Their competitiveness is not surprising; we witnessed it particularly during last season’s closing stages and even more so during pre-season testing.

“The statistics highlight that we didn’t make the podium after 88 consecutive races, and for the first time in 102 GPs our brand is missing from the top five.

“This indicates that we must close the gap quickly, but we realise this without causing ourselves any panic. It is a natural cycle, a drop in performance can happen, especially after such a long period of sustained successes.

“Our efforts now are aimed at analysing the data and at introducing set-up refinements in the coming races, ensuring that our riders can be more competitive.

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“There is certainly work to be done, yet we are well aware that this was only the first race of the season. 

“The calendar is long and features diverse tracks; we will only have a true sense of our standing against the competition after the next few rounds.”

“A questionable decision”

Dall’Igna concluded by crediting Marquez’s “smartness” under difficult circumstances during an “unlucky” Buriram weekend, labelling the Sprint penalty “a questionable decision” before wheel rim damage sent Marquez out of the grand prix.

“In short, [it] was a GP we knew we had to manage with smartness. Marc was doing exactly that, putting all his mind and heart into it,” Dall’Igna wrote.

“However, he was truly unlucky: firstly in the Sprint Race, where a questionable decision by FIM MotoGP Stewards cost him the win, and then in the GP itself where, despite some difficulties, a podium was well within reach before he was forced to retire.”

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Team-mate Francesco Bagnaia was left 13th on the grid after falling to make Qualifying 2, then finished ninth in both races.

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